Apparatus for frothing rubberlike material



Nov. 6, 1951 J. 1: MARVIN ETAL 2,574,220

APPARATUS FOR momma RUBBER-LIKE MATERIAL Original Filed Jan. 30, 1947 2 SHEETS-SHEET l /N VEN 7 095 JoH/v 7: MAR V/N 0265 H /7F DDEN THE/Q ATTOE EYS J. T. MARVIN- ETAL APPARATUS FOR FROTHING RUBBER-LIKE MATERIAL Nov. 6,, 195] 2 SHEETSSHEET 2 Original Filed Jan. 50, 1947 7 1k Qwl n5 Uvab mi N 5 E Y SN0%E Q/ N m me E5 T A W y; Ti J Patented Nov. 6, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT oFrlcs 2.574.220 APPARATUS FOR FBOTHING RUBBERLIKE Orlginal application January 30, 1947, Serial No. 725,379, now Patent No. 2,475,191, dated July 5, 1949. Divided and this application June 4, 1949,

Serial No. 97,216 i 3 Claims. (01. 259-64) This application is a division of Serial No. 725,379, filed January 30, 1947, Patented July 5, 1949, No. 2,475,191.

This invention relates to the aeration of viscous liquids and is particularlylconcerned with improved methods for controlling the aeration of aqueous dispersions of butalastic polymers.

Butalastic polymers are herein defined as any p lymer. natural or synthetic, which. includes a conjugated diene radical, such as, butadienes, substituted butadienes. etc.

It is, therefore, an object ofthe invention to provide a method for aerating aqueous dispersions of butalastic polymers, such as, natural rubber or synthetic rubber dispersions or latices, into 'a' froth wherein the size of the air bubbles will be controlled and wherein-the froth is of a stable character due to controlled beating speed.

In accordance with the above object, it is a further object to. provide a continuous method for foaming or frothing aqueous dispersions of butalastic polymers wherein a plurality of heaters are utilized, each of which operates at a progressively different and increased speed whereby the size of the air bubbles in the foam may be closely controlled in the various frothing tanks used in connection with the heaters.

A still further object of the invention is to provide a method for aerating an aqueous dispersion of a butalastic polymer wherein an aqueous dispersion is'frothed or foamed through beatingoperations wherein the heaters operate at progressively greater speeds whereby the bubble size of the dispersion may be controlled and. changed through a desirable range of sizes so that the final foamed dispersion will have small sized air bubbles and be stable in character.

We have discovered that in the frothing or foaming of aqueous dispersions of butalastic polymers, such as, rubber latex; etc., control of the beater speeds has a marked eilect on the type of foam produced. In this connection, it is desirable to create relatively large bubbles in the early stages of the beating which will be'gradually reduced in size through the beat-' ing process so that small sized bubbles are present in the final foam which tends towards increasing the stability of the foam. Various apparatuses have been used in the past in order to obtain this small bubble size in the foam but so far as we are aware, no satisfactory continuous method has ever been proposed nor have the prior methods been of a type which lend 2 themselves to close control of the foam or to continuous or semi-continuous operation. The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for foaming aqueous dispersions wherein the bubble size of the foam may be closely controlled and will be progressively decreased with attendant volumetric increase until such time as the foam has the desired bubble size and volume and is of such character that said operations may be carried out in a continuous, semi-continuous or batch process as desired.

Further objects and advantages of the pres-,' ent invention will be apparent from "the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein preferred embodiments of the present invention are clearly shown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view of another type of apparatus for continuous or semi-continuous foaming of aqueous dispersions.

Fig. 2 is a three dimenisonal chart showing 7 efiect of speed and time on foam height.

In the foaming or frothing ofjbutalastic polymer dispersions, the froth or foam is produced by aeration of the liquid usually through use of a squirrel cage heater or the like, wherein vast quantities of air are introduced into the liquid to produce a foam or froth. This 'air.

as it is beaten into the liquid, tends to produce bubbles of relatively large size and these bubbles are obviously of a rather unstable nature, therefore, if a froth including large bubbles were used in the manufacture of sponge rubber articles, it is apparent that the froth would be highly unstable and would break down in the molds so that completely filled molds would be almost impossible to obtain. It has been found that a relatively small bubble size of the aerated foam has greater stability and is therefore more desirable .in the molding-of articles from foamed dispersions.

In the pest, control of the air bubble size in the foam was diiiicult to obtain and, so far as we are' aware, the only method known was one in which heaters were immersed at different depths within the dispersion whereby different levels of the dispersion were frothed progres sively. This method has several obvious disadvantages, the main one being, that the entirebatch used in the first beating chamber is only partially aerated at the top thereof.

Our improved method for the aeration of aqueous dispersions proposes the use of a p1uacrylonitrile. butadiene copolymers.

3 rality of heaters which operate at progressively increased speeds whereby a large air bubble sise is first obtained which bubble size is progressively broken down in the several stages oftheprocesstoacontrolledsmallbubblesise of a maximum stability.

Pbrthesakeofelarity,theuseoftheterm "lates"hereinafteristobeunderstoodtoinelude any butalastic polymer dispersion. such as. dispersions or latices of natural rubber, polychloroprene, butadiencstyrene conolymm, polyil nr n and. in fact. any dispersion which falls within the clan of conjugated dioleiin polymers.

An embodiment of the invention is shown in Pig. 1. wherein another type of aparatus is utilised to accomplish the same end, namely, that offoamingthelatex-Inl'ig. Lapluralityof tanksareshownwhereintankllhtheinitial mixingehamberforthelatex. Thelatexmay ormaynotbecompoundedasdesired,orit may be compounded by the addition of com-' pounding ingredients at any of the subsequent stopsintheprocess. Thetankllissupplied withamixerllandispreferablytiltably pported on a support ll. After a predetermtl timeofmixing.duringwhichperiod.airis beaten into the late: to form large bubbles. the tank it is tilted on the support it and the con-' tentspouredintoasecondtankltalsosupplied with a mixer or heater ll. Tank It is tiltably supported on support It. After another period of aeration, the tank It is tilted to pour its contentsintoathirdtankfl suppliedwithamixer I4 and tiltably supported on support 00. Tank l2 inthedrawing.l'ig.l.isshowninatilted position wherein the contents is being poured into storage tank ll. In place of tilting tanks, valved .bottom outlets may be supplied for the tanks as shown-in the dotted lines at I and II! in connection with tanks II and it. In this case. the beaten latex is removed from the bottomofthetanksratherthanbeingpoured therefrom. Obviously. any means of transferringthelatexfromonetanktotheothercomu within the scope of this invention.

Btoragetankllislargerthananyoftheother tanks. Tankttflalsosuppliedwithabeater I and a bottom outlet Ill which is valved at Ill and communicates with a smaller tank III also equipped with a heater I wherein the gelling agent may be added through apipe Ill. The tank lit may be emptied directly into molds twice the size of tank ll to accommodate through a bottom outlet Ill which is valved at II. or by other suitable means.

In practice. squirrel cage type heaters are utilised which operate on a planetary system.

One such heater is sold on the market under the name of the Hobart Mixer which is a planetary type mixer having a planetary rotation of about the speed of the rotation of thebeater. Inoneesample,thebeaterintank II will operate at about 100 R. P. M. with 50 R. P. M. planetary rotation, whereas the beater a in tank II will be operated at approximately 200 R. P. II. with a 100 R. P. M. planetary rotationwhereasthebeater llintankll will be operated at approximately 400 R. P. II. with between150and200R.P.M.planetaryrotational speed. In thh connection. the heater in the storage tank is preferably operated at a speedslightlylessthanthelastfoamingtank heater to prevent further increase in foam volume and, therefore. we recommend speeds betweenstoandfltkldlwithaoomondconnectiomthefinalstmagetankilahould full. The latex, after being 4 ingplanetaryrotationalspeed. The

heater lllinthetankllloperatesataspeedthe sameorslightlygreatertlunthelastfoaming static:

abouttwiceaslargeasthelastaeratingtank.

The sizeof thegellingtanklllkeontrolledby thenumberofmoldswhicharedesiredtobenlled from one batch ofthehtes.

Allofthespeedsnotedhereinandm m volumes of tanks are obviously abritrary and dependverymuchonthenmnberofstepsutilised. Thesuggestedsiserattooftanksand thebeatingintank beaten ataratherslowspeedwhich beating may be called the "ereaming" step. Thu the tankllmayhechargedahoutthreequarters tank It. will increase two volume and, therefore. tank 0.

change. Tank 92. after being again increase about twice its volume tank should be about twice as preceding tank it etc. As herebefore the number of beating steps increase in beating speeds has much to the volume increase in the various tanks therefore. ofathreestepproeessatapproximatelythe beating speeds set forth.

using successive tanks of increasing sise. it is possible for the heaters to operate at substantially full efilciency. in all cases. since the level of the latex initially charged is. always approximately the same due to the changing volume ofthetanks. Thisisonefactwhichmakesthe beating of latex by means of a variable speed heater in a single tank rather dimcult to accomplish and ineflicient since the tank must be large enough to hold the iinal volume. of the latex and thus only a very small quantity may be charged therein which means that the heater is not operating at anything ting its full emciency until the volume of the latex hasgreatlyincreasedduetoaeration. This requires longer times for the mixing which oiten causes premature coagulation of the latex, or a runny condition thereof wherein frothing is diiiiculttoobtain. Bimilarlyifthelatesis beatenatthehighspeedflrstprematurecoagulation may possibly result whereas ual increase in beating speerh med ent invention prevents any such from arising.

annexe It is obvious from these statements that the more tanks utilized in the steps of beating, the greater the efllciencyof the set-up since the change in volume in each tank will be relatively less which means that the beater will be operating in a more constant depth of liquid or froth which is a desirable condition. However, for practical purposes in production. three beater chambers or tanks yield satisfactory results, as set forth herein.

Fig. 2 is a three dimensional chart showing actual results obtained in beating latex to a foam in a three-step process, the speeds utilized being approximately 100. 200 and 360 R. P. M. The chart shows that the latex is first beaten for six minutes at 100 R. P. M., the speed is then increased to 200 R. :P. M. for a period of five minutes after which the same frothed latex is beaten at 360 RP. M. for four minutes. Thus the actual foaming of the latex takes place over a period of minutes during which time the volume thereof increases approximately seven times. The foam obtained is highlystable, of small bubble size and very desirable for molding purposes.

From the foregoing it is apparent that w have provided a new method for continuously foaming butalastic copolymers in aqueous dispersions which gives a desirable foam of stable characteristics, small bubble size, which method through the specific steps Win the process is eflicient throughout the heatin periods whereby greater quantities of dispersions may be frothed to a desirable character foam in a minimum of time.

In some cases it may be desirable to furnish air or other satisfactory gaseous medium under pressure to one or more of the beating chambers to aid in the aeration of the latex'and thus work in coniunction with the beater or heaters, such an expedient is understood to be within the scope of our invention.

While the embodiments of the present invention as herein disclosed, constitute preferred forms,- it is to be understood that other forms might be adopted.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. Apparatus for foaming latex, comprising in combination; at least three separate individually tiltable containers in cascade arrangement wherein the highest container is the smallest and each succeeding lower container is pro-i gressively larger, said containers being arranged and spaced so that. upon tilting thereof, the contents will flow into the next lower container; at least three separate beaters, one of which is associated with and carried entirely by each container and adapted to tilt with the container as a unit, each beater being adapted to rotate at a speed greater than the preceding beater wherein the ratio of the first to the last beater is in the order of about i to 4 with an initial speed of about R. P. M., and a storage tank larger than any of said containers and positioned below the last mentioned container in the cascade arrangement.

2. Apparatus for foaming latex, comprising in combination; at least three separate individually tiltable containers in cascade arrangement, each succeeding lower container being approximately twice as large as the preceding container, said containers being arranged and spaced so that upon tilting thereof, the contents will fiow into the next lower container; at least three separate heaters, one of which is associated with and carried entirely by each container and adapted to tilt with the container as a unit. each beater being adapted to rotate at. a speed greater than the preceding beater wherein the ratio of the first to the last beater is in the order ofabout 1 to 4 with an initial speed of about 100 R. P. 31.. and a storage tank larger than any of said containers and positioned below the last mentioned container in the eascade arrangement.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein each container includes a tiltable carriage for supporting said container.

JOHN T. MARVIN. GEORGE E. McFADDEN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references :are of record in the.

file of this patent:

- UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Re. 18,447 Speidel Oct. 26, 1926 1,158,126 North May '1, 1928 1,983,819 Simpson Dec. 4, 1934 2,324,988 Greenup et al. July 20, 1943 

